Natalie Green

Brown

WRD 103

November 21, 2013

Rhetorical Analysis

In my public document I attempted to use pathos, logos and ethos. I believe I used

a good mix of logos and pathos. Through using a variety of statistics and trying to appeal

to peoples emotions by showing the negatives of obesity and just how awful the life of an

obese person could be. I also believe that I have credibility to speak on this issue because

of people I have talked to and classes I have taken.

I believe that my ethos is that I have taken nutrition classes and worked with

personal trainers before as well as researching the topic in order to prepare for the

document. I attempted to apply the knowledge I learned in the video. Personal trainers

provide support and give you motivation to work out and although that is not practical for

everyone friends can provide the same support so that is why I chose to mention working

out with friends in the document. In nutrition classes they teach you that making healthy

choices starts with your everyday routine and that simple things such as taking stairs

instead of an elevator can help you on your path to a healthier lifestyle. I used this as part

of my public service announcement as well because it is one of the first steps in

developing a healthy lifestyle and I thought it was important in helping others on their

journey. I used these two things as well as facts and statistics to help educate the audience

as well as display my credibility.

Statistics is also the logos part of the paper and I feel like I included a decent

amount of statistics without over doing it. Also the statistics are not just random useless

facts, they relate to the topic and help add to the affect of the campaign. There are facts

that show just how prevalent obesity is in America to help make the case that obesity is

an issue that should and needs to be changed. The other facts are the health issues that

obesity can cause. These facts serve to make obesity non-appealing to people and make

them want to live a healthier lifestyle in order to avoid health issues in the future. I chose

to use logos as one of the stronger parts of the argument because these facts may be

surprising and shocking to many people just like they were to me. I knew obesity was an

issue but had no idea just how big of an issue it was until I saw these facts. Also I believe

that showing the facts is an important part to getting the argument across.

Pathos is attempting to appeal to people’s emotions, which I attempted to do

however it may not work for all people. I attempted to use music, images and emotional

facts to appeal to peoples emotions. To start I used the facts that obese people have a

higher risk of a heart attack, stroke, type two diabetes, and even some cancers. I believe

that these appeal to people’s emotions because no one wants to see a family member

suffer through any of these nor do they themselves want to suffer through them. Illnesses

bring out the emotions in people so hopefully these things affect others the way the affect

me. I also made the images that were negative black and white to try and create a more

somber tone for these images and make them less appealing. Where as the positive

images were in bright pretty colors and looked more appealing. For the negatives I used a

softer more depressing instrumental for music to make it less appealing and seem sad.

Then when it switches to positive it is a more upbeat instrumental that makes it more

entertaining and seem appealing. If the combination of these there things appeal to

peoples emotions than the pathos served its purpose. I chose to use pathos because it was

sort of a given by seeing what obesity can cause and having it appeal to my emotions I

felt as though it would be a good fit to help appeal to others emotions and even make the

argument stronger.

In this public document I used logos and pathos, as well as ethos by attempting to

show my credibility. I used these because I felt as though a mixture of everything makes

the campaign stronger and more appealing. I used music and images to appeal to people’s

emotions as well as facts and statistics that apply to both logos and pathos. I believe that

in the end the combination will change people’s views on obesity and make everyone

want to at least try and live a healthier more active life.